Tag: Coal

My new favorite post-election reaction goes to Robert E. Murray, CEO of Murray Energy. He sent this prayer to America out to his workers, followed by his view of the nation’s future: Dear Lord: The American people have made their choice. They have decided that America must change its course, away from the principals of […]

Eric Lipton’s feature on the decline of coal in Kentucky is interesting, though flawed. He tells a heartbreaking story for these coal miners, helping us understand just how deeply people in eastern Kentucky believe in coal. Even if other economic opportunities appeared in the region, a lot of people just don’t want to imagine a […]

On this date 92 years ago, the Matewan Massacre took place in the small town of Matewan, West Virginia. In January 1920, the United Mine Workers of America had a new president: John L. Lewis. Lewis, who would become one of the most powerful labor leaders in American history, wanted to organize the miners of […]

On April 20, 1914, members of the Colorado National Guard, along with a strikbreaking militia employed by the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, a corporation owned by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., opened fire on a tent camp of strikers at Ludlow, in the coal country of southern Colorado, north of Trinidad. At least 19 people […]